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ACADEMIC FREEDOMMs. Edna “Dean” Vergara-Marquez

Academic Freedom – A Belief

• is the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference or restriction from law, institutional regulations, or public pressure.

Conflict of Definition

• The term, “Academic Freedom” tends to be difficult to define because its technical definitions come from preferred educational custom and practice (professional norm), faculty contracts (professional norm), and from legal findings related to constitutional and contract law (legal norm).

• In its everyday usage, its definition is more likely to come from the folkways and mythology that often define the educational culture.

Rationale• Proponents of academic freedom believe the freedom of

inquiry by students and faculty members is essential to the mission of the academy. They argue that academic communities are repeatedly targeted for repression due to their ability to shape and control the flow of information. When scholars attempt to teach or communicate ideas or facts that are inconvenient to external political groups or to authorities, they may find themselves targeted for public vilification, job loss, imprisonment, or even death.

• In North Africa, a professor of public health discovered that his countrys infant mortality rate was higher than government figures indicated. He lost his job and was imprisoned.

Importance of Academic Freedom

• Essential to the mission of the academy • Without protection, academic communities are

repressed for their ability to shape knowledge

- According to a reflection by Robert Quinn, historically, the power to shape knowledge is a source of power. Authorities have sought to control societies by controlling scholars

• We should care about increasing the quality and flow of information and understanding in the world (academic freedom and scholarship promotes these goals)

Academic Freedom – What does it do?

• Both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual debate without fear of censorship or retaliation.

•Establishing a faculty member‘s right to remain true to his or her pedagogical philosophy and intellectual commitments. It preserves the intellectual integrity of our educational system and thus serves the public good.

•Both faculty members and students can make comparisons and contrasts between subjects taught in a course and any field of human knowledge or period of history.

•Academic freedom gives both students and faculty the right to express their views — in speech, writing, and through electronic communication, both on and off campus — without fear of sanction.

• Academic freedom gives both students and faculty the right to study and do research on the topics they choose and to draw what conclusions they find consistent with their research, though it does not prevent others from judging whether their work is valuable and their conclusions sound.

• Political, religious, or philosophical beliefs of politicians, administrators, and members of the public cannot be imposed on students or faculty.

• Academic freedom gives faculty members and students the right to seek redress or request a hearing if they believe their rights have been violated.

• Academic freedom gives faculty members and students the right to challenge one another‘s views, but not to penalize them for holding them.

• Academic freedom gives faculty members substantial latitude in deciding how to teach the courses for which they are responsible.

• Academic freedom guarantees that serious charges against a faculty member will be heard before a committee of his or her peers. It provides faculty members the right to due process, including the assumption that the burden of proof lies with those who brought the charges, that faculty have the right to present counter-evidence and confront their accusers, and be assisted by an attorney in serious cases if they choose.

• Academic freedom protects a faculty member‘s authority to assign grades to students, so long as the grades are not capricious or unjustly punitive. More broadly, academic freedom encompasses both the individual and institutional right to maintain academic standards.

In the Philippines…• THE PROVISION OF ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 1 OF THE 1987

PHILIPPINE CONSITITUTION GUARANTEES THE PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF THE RIGHT OF ALL CITIZENS TO QUALITY EDUCATION AT ALL LEVELS AND THE TAKING OF APPROPRIATE STEPS TO MAKE SUCH EDUCATION ACCESIBLE TO ALL.  THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION REFFERED TO IN THIS PROVISION AND THE RIGHT TO SELECT A PROFESSION IS SUBJECT TO FAIR, REASONABLE, AND EQUITABLE ADMISSION AND ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS. 

• ARTICLE XIV, SECTION 5 NO. (2) PROVIDES;  “ACADEMIC FREEDOM SHALL ENJOYED IN ALL INSTITUTION OF HIGHER LEARNING” 

• ACADEMIC FREEDOM IN INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING GIVES THE INSTITUTIONS THE RIGHT  TO DETERMINE WHOM TO ADMIT AND TO SET STANDARDS OF ADMISSION.

Justice Speaks…

• …”Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization stagnate and die.”

• “To impose any strait jacket upon the intellectual leaders in our colleges and universities would imperil the future of our Nation.”

–Chief Justice Earl Warren (Sweezy, 1957)

UP: Maninidigan Laban sa Tunay na Kaaway ng Academic Freedom

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Thank You!